Artist and Te Weu Charitable Trust community researcher Dayna Raroa (Ngāti Porou) said the research she co-authored was published in June 2024.

It now sits on a library shelf ... “but who’s going to read it?” she said.

As part of a grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, Raroa received $100,000 to organise the art exhibition titled Mōwhai: The Weight of Water.

To be held at Gisborne’s former Marina Restaurant building on September 27, it will feature more than 30 local creatives, who are translating the community-led research into artwork.

Raroa, who has been working on the project for nearly a year, said the project would show a different way of communicating information and allow people to share their perspectives with local leaders.

“Because not everybody wants to come to council chambers or ... write a letter to the council. Some people want to create stuff and I think it gives them a good opportunity to get involved.”

She is delivering Mōwhai in partnership with Te Weu Charitable Trust, a local Māori-led research organisation that works closely with local hapū, iwi and community groups to support kaupapa that uphold mana motuhake and climate resilience.

The organisation led the qualitative research, titled Kua huri te tai, Kua pari te tai aroha, in collaboration with Health New Zealand and the Ministry of Health.

The study, created by Raroa and other community researchers, gathered views from diverse demographics of the region.

They investigated how repeated adverse weather events between March 2022 and June 2023, including Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle, impacted community health and wellbeing, and how social and healthcare systems responded to the events and were affected during and after.

The exhibition’s artists were drawing from the research to “showcase local voices that are often invisible in political and planning spaces”, Raroa said.

In her exhibition overview, Raroa states that Mōwhai “intersects with ongoing public discourse around disaster recovery and accountability, civic representation and local voice, environmental planning and climate adaptation, and art as a form of political and cultural commentary”.

Contributors ranged from painters, photographers and sculptors to those from more unexpected fields, including many offering interactive experiences, Raroa said.

“Some of them aren’t your everyday creatives that you might think would be part of an exhibition.”

An example was a tattoo artist who would bring a flash sheet of little tattoos to offer to people on the night, Raroa said.

Her sister, Renee Raroa, would present “drinks with an experience” and a builder had created a seat from a pillar of the Hikuwai Bridge washed out during the extreme weather.

“I’ve even got creatives that work with beeswax and honey, and they’re talking about how the weather interrupted the cycle of bees,” she said.

Local doctor Amanda Roe will contribute an artwork that highlights the disruption of networks and how people were unable to get their medical prescriptions.

Another local artist, Margaret Hansen, is creating a piece inspired by a Gisborne District Council photograph of resident and nurse Sally Officer paddling across a river in an inflatable raft on her three-hour round trip to work after a crucial bridge was washed away and remains unfixed.

“Margaret’s piece highlights how local democracy is not abstract,” Raroa said.

“It’s about the everyday infrastructure that determines whether people can safely get home, access kai and stay connected. It asks who decides which bridges are rebuilt and whose voices count in those decisions?

“By bringing this issue into the exhibition, the artwork becomes both a record of local resilience and a critique of governance choices that shaped recovery in Te Tairāwhiti.”

Many of her creative contributors told her the exhibition had been “a good output”.

“A lot of people are still carrying a lot and trauma ... but if you can put it into something creative and expressive in the way that you want to, it’s a good output.

“What I want out of [the exhibition] is more for sparking conversations and healing and hope from the community,” Raroa said.

The knowledge mobilisation grant covers the exhibition costs, Raroa’s wages, a website and koha for artists if needed, as well as contributing to Te Weu charitable trust for its input and funding a support person role.

Mōwhai: The Weight of Water exhibition will run for one week.

Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air